Santa Monica, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Santa Monica, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Santa Monica lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Santa Monica — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Santa Monica — the short answer
Santa Monica, Texas: USDA zone 10a, about 338 days between hard freezes, across 636 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Willacy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 23
- Willacy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~338
- Willacy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 636 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Willacy County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Santa Monica's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Santa Monica's 338-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Santa Monica
Each reading below is measured for Santa Monica itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSanta Monica runs about 338 days between hard freezes (read from Willacy County, the closest normal to Santa Monica) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSanta Monica sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Santa Monica is in
Santa Monica sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Santa Monica's own centroid rather than borrowed from Willacy County.
What Grows in Santa Monica
Every plant below cleared Santa Monica's own zone 10a and its 338-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Santa Monica?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Santa Monica
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Santa Monica. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOBIS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- QUIROGA SERV STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- B & EUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- RODRIGUEZ SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- B & H INVESTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- WILLAMAR OPERATIONS CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- SOUTHWEST STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- SEBASTIAN FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- VACANT LOTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- ABANDONED GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- SEBASTIAN SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- PENA TIRE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Santa Monica's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Santa Monica.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Santa Monica
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Santa Monica
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Santa Monica
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Santa Monica, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Santa Monica. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Santa Monica
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Santa Monica average
Your land is one point inside Santa Monica
Everything above resolves to Santa Monica as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 636 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Willacy County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Santa Monica Average
Santa Monica Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Santa Monica
- ●One soil character for all of Santa Monica
- ●Frost dates read at Santa Monica's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Santa Monica's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Santa Monica
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Santa Monica, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Santa Monica averages can't show:
We read public map data around Santa Monica — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Santa Monica average
How we know this about Santa Monica
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Willacy County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Santa Monica
When does frost risk typically end in Santa Monica?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Santa Monica typically lands around Jan 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Feb 9.
When is the first frost in Santa Monica?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Santa Monica typically arrives around Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 9, so the watching starts about Nov 23 — about 338 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Santa Monica?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Santa Monica sees about 338 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 9, about 303 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Santa Monica?
The federal record around Santa Monica is a meaningful one — 39 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 7.9 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Santa Monica?
From about Nov 23 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Santa Monica's scale — its 10a band and its 338-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Santa Monica's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Santa Monica’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Santa Monica's own scale — the 636 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Santa Monica's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Santa Monica, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 7.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Santa Monica's boundary and the 636 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~338-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Santa Monica's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Santa Monica has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Willacy County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Santa Monica's 636 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Willacy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Willacy County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Willacy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Santa Monica's 636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Santa Monica you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 636 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 7.9 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Santa Monica-wide figureread your own land →
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